{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='67 year old US Iranian citizen recounts 3 months imprisonment in Iran' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54be8fd8eafeecae13c8c4' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54be8fd8eafeecae13c8c4' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\n67 year old US Iranian citizen recounts 3 months imprisonment in Iran\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003e1. Wide of news conference2. Reporters3. SOUNDBITE (English) Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:\"I should also say that prison, being in prison, is never pleasant....\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003e1. Wide of news conference\u003cbr/\u003e2. Reporters\u003cbr/\u003e3. SOUNDBITE (English) Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I should also say that prison, being in prison, is never pleasant. But I was not physically mistreated and I never feared that I would be mistreated physically. And, within the confines of prison and prison rules, my jailers made accommodation that made life tolerable while I was dreaming each day of freedom.\"\u003cbr/\u003e4. Moderator selecting questions\u003cbr/\u003e5. Reporters\u003cbr/\u003e6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:\u003cbr/\u003e\"After several months of exchanges with my interrogators, it became clear to me that elements in Iran's intelligence ministry believe what they have said publicly, namely that the US government, entangled in Iraq and elsewhere, no longer contemplates a military attack on Iran, and that they aim at a \"velvet revolution\" in Iran like the ones in Georgia and the Ukraine and the instruments for this goal are think-tanks and foundations.\"\u003cbr/\u003e7. Wide of conference\u003cbr/\u003e8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I remember at one stage, and this was outside prison, the guy who was questioning me raised his voice. And I turned around and I said, 'don't you ever raise your voice.' And that was it, really. But I was really always very polite with them and as a result they were very polite with me. And, in prison, they would always say, 'well, we have questioned you for two hours, if you are tired, would you like to go back to your room?' And I wanted to get it over (with) and I would say, 'No, please continue.'\"\u003cbr/\u003e9. Reporters\u003cbr/\u003e10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:\u003cbr/\u003e\"Whenever we would finish, I would ask them, 'when would I see you again?' and they would say, let's say, 'in three days time'. And if they couldn't make it they would always send a message for me, 'tell her we are not coming today,' or something. The Q\u0026amp;A was always done in writing, so, they would put their questions in writing, I would put my answers in writing. So, of course, this dragged out a little bit longer.\"\u003cbr/\u003e11. Pan from audience to Esfandiari at podium\u003cbr/\u003eAt her lowest moments during the more than three months she spent in solitary confinement, Haleh Esfandiari wondered if anyone remembered her or if she had been swallowed by Iran's most notorious prison without the world noticing.\u003cbr/\u003eBut the 67-year-old Iranian-American academic, accused by Iran of trying to foment an overthrow of the country's hardline government, pushed those fears out of her mind. \u003cbr/\u003eInstead, she filled her days with exercise in her small cell, reading, and the conviction that her family and colleagues would not let her case fade.\u003cbr/\u003eShe said she was generally treated well during her detention.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Within the confines of prison and prison rules, my jailers made accommodation that made life tolerable while I was dreaming each day of freedom,\" she said during a news conference on Saturday.\u003cbr/\u003eEsfandiari, director of the Middle East Program for the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, returned this week to her suburban Washington home in Potomac, Maryland, after spending 105 days in Evin Prison in Tehran. \u003cbr/\u003eShe was released on bail in August and allowed to leave Iran last weekend. \u003cbr/\u003eAfter a short stay with her sister and husband, Shaul Bakhash, in Vienna, Esfandiari and Bakhash flew to Washington on Thursday.\u003cbr/\u003eEsfandiari recalled numerous encounters with jailers and interrogators of the prison, and described an incident when one interrogator raised his voice at her.\u003cbr/\u003e\"I turned around and I said, 'don't you ever raise your voice.' And that was it, really. But I was really always very polite with them and as a result they were very polite with me,\" she said.\u003cbr/\u003eHer release came after Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, made a direct appeal to Iran's powerful Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. \u003cbr/\u003eKhamenei replied in August that he was pleased with Hamilton's message, but it is unclear if that communication led to Esfandiari's eventual release.\u003cbr/\u003eThe Wilson Center, along with Esfandiari's family, repeatedly called on Iran to let her go during her detention. \u003cbr/\u003eThey also strongly denied Iranian claims that Esfandiari, along with three other Iranian-Americans, attempted to create a \"soft\" revolution by opening the country up to the West.\u003cbr/\u003eEsfandiari said she was generally treated well during her detention but sometimes found it hard to keep her spirits up.\u003cbr/\u003eHer ordeal began last December during her annual Christmas visit to her 93-year-old mother in Tehran. \u003cbr/\u003eOn her way to the airport for her flight home, she was robbed in a taxi and stripped of her passport.\u003cbr/\u003eWhen she went to apply for another passport, Iranian authorities began a series of lengthy interrogations and barred her from leaving Iran. \u003cbr/\u003eEsfandiari was allowed to stay at her mother's apartment until May, when she was taken to Evin Prison, where Iran holds political prisoners.\u003cbr/\u003eOf the three Iranian-Americans accused with her, two remain in prison: Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, and Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine. \u003cbr/\u003eThe third, journalist Parnaz Azima, was not imprisoned and her passport was returned this past week.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex 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